Chapter Forty-Seven Retreat
Nissa
Nissa lay on the couch in the TV room the next morning, listening with growing irritation as Tommy, Alex, and Thorn argued about why Evie wasn’t responding to any of them.
Alex was blaming Thorn for Evie’s increasingly short temper and bad moods over the last few months.
Thorn was trying to defend himself while also admitting he had messed up and that he owed Evie an explanation and an apology.
After the third time Alex tried to blame it all on Thorn, he snapped and told Alex that his thoughtlessness in planning her birthday party proved how little he actually knew about Evie, and to shut up, because that party was clearly for him, not her.
Dead silence followed that outburst, and Nissa smirked.
When Thorn got angry, he was absolutely terrifying, and she wouldn’t have been surprised if Alex pissed himself a little when the huge man yelled at him.
Tommy, ever the voice of reason, said they were all at fault, then cursed as HELIX informed him, for the third time, that he had failed to override her protocols and that she would not allow him to enter Evie’s apartment.
This had been going on all morning, and just as she was about to get up and tell them they were all at fault and to give the poor girl some space to breathe, HELIX spoke up again.
“Evie isn’t home anyway. She left this morning, and she just informed me she has arrived safely at her destination. She will be back Wednesday night and doesn’t wish to be bothered in the meantime.”
The kitchen went completely silent, but Nissa narrowed her eyes.
Aaron had also left this morning for Colombia with a return scheduled for Wednesday.
But Evie wouldn’t have gone with him, would she?
It was precisely the kind of impulsive thing Aaron would have done without considering how that would affect anyone else, namely, his wife and Alex.
She hoped Evie had better sense than to take him up on the offer if that was the case, and instead went somewhere else.
Getting up, she walked to the bathroom and locked herself in.
“HELIX,” she murmured. “I don’t want to know where she is or who she’s with,” she began, knowing the AI probably wouldn’t tell her anyway, but wanting to keep her distance from a potential shitshow if she was right.
“But if Evie left the Tower with a certain contractor this morning, delete the security footage.”
“While Mr. Denton did make that offer to her in the elevator when they got home, and Evie did agree at first, she realized the optics wouldn’t look good while she was packing and instead had me book her a stay at a yoga and meditation retreat a few hours away,” the AI responded quickly to her concerns.
“Oh, thank god,” Nissa sighed in relief and splashed some water on her face.
Paula and Alex would have both lost their minds if Evie and Aaron had gone away together, no matter how innocent it would have been, at least on Evie’s part.
She’d noticed the way Aaron’s eyes tended to linger on Evie’s ass as she walked away from him.
Not that she thought he would actually cheat on Paula, but still…
She pushed the thoughts out of her head and patted her face dry, heading back out to the couch. She wasn’t surprised to see Alex and Tommy sitting on opposite ends, looking thoroughly dejected. She raised her eyebrow as she settled back in, not feeling an ounce of pity for either one of them.
“Where did Thorn go?” she asked, not bothering to hide her amusement.
“He said he needed to end things with his girlfriend.” Tommy ran his hand over his face, scrubbing at his eyes tiredly.
“Apparently, she’s very insecure about his relationship with Evie, and he was trying his best to show that he wasn’t in love with her and only sees her as a little sister by staying away.
I asked if he really wanted to be with someone who wanted him to remove someone so important to him from his life because of her insecurities. ”
“And I pointed out to him that I hadn’t asked Evie to step back from him or asked her to reduce the amount of time she spent with him, because I knew how important he was to her and I loved her enough to accept their closeness.
” Alex leaned back in the chair. “He seemed to realize she’s a selfish twat and left. ”
“Doesn’t she work for Sloane Security?” Nissa pulled the blanket up to her shoulders and rested her head on Tommy’s thigh.
Alex nodded. “Yeah, I don’t know much about her, though. She started around the time Thorn decided to step down, and I was busy with the assessments. Couldn’t even tell you her name.”
“Jolene.” Nissa supplied after a moment of thought.
“I didn’t like her. Every time Thorn was talking to someone else and not paying attention to her, she looked incredibly bored and would start scrolling on her phone.
She never once tried to talk to anyone and was very rude if someone tried to talk to her.
Lana was actively holding back from slapping her by the time they left. ”
“Yeah, I noticed that.” Tommy ran his fingers through her hair, playing with it absently. “I just figured she was shy or couldn’t really hear everything over the music.”
“Nope.” Nissa shook her head, picked up the remote, and flicked through the channels again. “Since Cole and Thorn are so close, Lana was actively trying to engage her in conversation, and if Lana can’t get you talking, then there’s something wrong with you.”
“True.” Tommy smiled briefly, then it faded, and he sighed, looking down at her seriously. “You don’t know where Evie is, do you?”
“I don’t know any more than you do.” Nissa shrugged. Even if she did, she wouldn’t have told him. She was still upset with them both for their spectacular fumble of Evie’s birthday party.
“She won’t answer anything from either of us. Phone calls, texts, video call requests, nothing.” He slumped. “And now nothing is even going through. She’s either turned off her phone or temporarily blocked us.”
“What did you expect?” Nissa rolled her eyes and continued flicking through the channels, trying to find something that wasn’t a rerun of old sitcoms or Saturday cartoons. “You’ve been spamming her since you woke up. She needs space and time to process things.”
She looked up and saw them both staring at her in confusion, and her annoyance spiked again.
“What the hell, you two? Do you pay attention to her at all, or is it all about how she makes you feel? Good lord, I should be with her; at least I know about her.” She smiled mischievously as a thought occurred to her.
“I bet she turns into a quivering mess when you tell her she’s a good girl.” Seeing the flush rise on Alex’s neck, she let out a triumphant laugh. “I knew it. Can I use a hall pass for Evie, Tommy?”
“Nissa! She’s practically my sister! No!” Tommy screwed up his face in disgust and lightly pushed her off him, shifting so she couldn’t lie on him anymore.
“Practically,” Nissa muttered under her breath, grabbing a cushion and tucking it under her head.
If Tommy and Evie weren’t at least half-siblings, she’d give up women for the rest of her life.
Part of the reason she found Evie so attractive was because of how much she looked like Tommy, just softer and more feminine.
She let her mind wander briefly before Alex’s angry voice pulled her from her daydream.
“And I don’t share,” Alex said hotly, subtle anger tightening his soft features.
“Afraid she’d stay with me?” Nissa stretched out on the couch and propped her head on her hand, smirking as she teased him. “I’d give her a night she’d never forget.”
“Enough, Nissa,” Tommy said sharply. “You’re not using a hall pass for Evie.”
“Relax, Tommy.” She smiled at him sweetly.
“I was mostly joking.” She wouldn’t give Tommy up for Evie; she loved their relationship.
She got hall passes for women, and he got hall passes for men, up to two a year if they wanted.
He had used only two, and she had used three over their five years together.
She was wildly attracted to Tommy, and he was to her.
It was rare to find someone they’d use a hall pass for. If Evie ever showed interest, though…
“Anyway, she asked you for space. Give it to her.”
**********
Evie
Evie set her bag down on the bed and looked around.
Her room was simple but comfortable, with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains.
She checked her phone for the first time since she left that morning and frowned at the numerous messages from Tommy, Thorn, and Alex.
The yoga and meditation retreat was supposed to be technology-free.
She was expected to turn off her phone before going down to join the others for orientation lunch and lock it in her safe for the duration of her stay, but her curiosity won out over her anger and hurt, and she unlocked the phone to read through them.
She did a quick read-through of Alex’s first, which were full of apologies but no real accountability, except for one that admitted he should have known better and was sorry he had ruined her birthday.
She paused at that one and shook her head.
She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for it, because to her, it read like he wanted her to reassure him that he had done no such thing, which she wasn’t going to do, but she also understood that intentions were hard to read through text messages.
Moving on to Tommy’s, she found more apologies, but his read as more sincere, acknowledging he had messed up and would do whatever she needed him to do to fix things. He didn’t try to blame anything on Alex, which she suspected he could have, and it wouldn’t have been an exaggeration.
Finally, she read through Thorn’s. He’d only sent three and called once, compared to the dozens of texts and calls from both Tommy and Alex.
The first one apologized for making her feel disposable; the second asked if he could come down to talk to her and apologize properly, which was followed by the phone call.
And the last one was a request to let him, Tommy or Alex know she was okay before he kicked in her door.
Knowing he was serious, Evie was about to connect to HELIX when her phone buzzed, letting her know there was an incoming call. She was confused when she saw it was her landline. She hesitated before answering, wondering if Thorn had already kicked in the door.
“Hello?”
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Evie,” HELIX’s slightly exasperated voice came through, and Evie raised her eyebrow.
She was going to have to look into this when she got home.
She hadn’t realized the AI had advanced itself enough to know how to make calls using the landline.
“But Mr. Sloane has attempted to override my protocols three times now, and Thorn is threatening to dismantle me if I don’t let them into your apartment. ”
Sitting on the bed, Evie rubbed her eyes, feeling a tension headache coming on. “I’m at the resort. Tell them I’m away until Wednesday and want to be left alone.” She paused. “How did you know to use the phone to reach me?”
“Mr. Sloane connected to me last night using his phone,” the AI explained brightly, sounding unusually pleased with herself. “I figured I could reach you the same way and found your cell number on the phone bill in your email.”
“Right.” Evie was too tired to marvel at the AI’s problem-solving skills right now. She was already working on creating an app so HELIX could be used from anywhere, anyway. “Um. Good job.”
“Thank you. I will pass along your message. Enjoy your retreat.”
“Thanks.”
Evie heard the line disconnect and was about to turn off her phone, but when the call ended, her texts from Thorn returned.
After thinking it over for a minute, she texted him back, saying she would meet him for brunch on Wednesday, and sent him a time and a restaurant near Fred Hurst’s office.
Fred had called her on Friday, wished her a happy birthday, asked if she could come to his office on Wednesday at one, explained he had something to give her, and apologized for the delay in reaching out.
“I’m out of town visiting my wife’s sister and won’t be back in the office until Wednesday.”
She told him it was no problem and agreed to meet with him then. Powering off her phone and putting it in the safe, she quickly cleaned up a bit and then went down for orientation lunch, hoping the food would make her headache go away.